Doctor Who Rare Entries Contests

DWRE15: 12 August 2009

Results

In terms of participation, we seem to be holding steady at 40 entrants +/- 8
which is where we've been ever since DWRE11. Jolly good stuff and thanks to
all who entered, welcome aboard to a few new entrants and welcome back to some
seasoned campaigners. This was quite a close-run thing with most members of
the top six at one moment in time holding the number one spot, but when the
dust settled it was Will "Ozoo" James who claims his first win, with an
outstanding score of 48, and following a second place finish in DWRE13. No
stranger to the top 5, in second place it's the amazing Wilf. And Bazza follows
in third place. Bazza's first entry in a DWRE contest was back in DWRE5. These
were also the only three to record scores of less than 1000.
Here are the winning answer slates.
WILL "OZOO" JAMES WILF BAZZA
0 Lachele Carl Barry Jackson Nicholas Courtney
1 SIDRAT ISC OMDSS
2 The Inquisitor The Immortal The Monitor
3 Silver Nemesis The Curse of Fenric Spearhead from Space
4 Nemesis Solonian Malus
5 Spartacus James McCrimmon Senhora Camara
6 Tom Goodman-Hill Lynda Bellingham Nerys Hughes
7 Rise of the Cybermen Mission/Unknown The Chase
8 Ben Aaronovitch Matt Jones Graham Williams
9 Frontios Warriors Gate The Leisure Hive
To review the scoring:
The scores on the different questions are MULTIPLIED to produce a final score
for each entrant. Low score wins; a perfect score is 1. If your answer to a
question is correct, then your score is the number of people who gave that
answer, or an answer I consider equivalent. A wrong answer, or a skipped
question, gets a high score as a penalty. This is the median of:
- the number of entrants
- the square root of that number, rounded up to an integer
- double the largest number of entrants giving the same answer (right or wrong)
as each other on the question
Here is the complete table of scores. Use a monospaced font to see proper
alignment (this may mean doing 'view source'). Scores of over 500,000 have been
omitted to spare blushes.
RANK SCORE ENTRANT Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9
1 48 Will "Ozoo" James 2 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 2 2
2 672 Wilf 2 2 1 6 1 7 1 2 1 2
3 768 Bazza 4 1 2 4 2 1 1 3 1 4
4 1,872 bmb100 2 2 1 13 1 2 1 3 1 6
5 2,592 Aloysius 6 6 2 3 2 1 1 3 1 2
6 2,600 Blowfly 4 2 1 13 1 1 1 1 5 5
7 3,640 Matthew Kilburn 5 2 1 13 1 2 1 1 7 2
8 5,184 Stanmore 6 1 1 3 3 2 4 1 3 4
9 6,480 Chriskelk 1 6 5 3 3 1 1 2 1 WR
10 6,720 Ssarl 2 2 3 5 1 2 2 2 7 2
11 7,040 Mr Saxon 4 11 1 4 1 2 1 2 5 2
12 7,488 Eye of Horus 2 3 1 13 3 2 1 2 4 2
13 7,722 Badgers 1 11 2 13 3 1 1 3 3 1
14 7,776 Nightsky 2 3 1 3 3 1 1 2 6 WR
15 8,640 Peter Gemmell 5 3 2 4 2 1 6 2 3 1
16 13,728 Simon Kinnear 6 11 1 WR 2 2 1 1 1 2
17 15,600 Ben Goudie 5 6 1 WR 1 1 1 2 5 2
18 17,160 Ed Rackstraw 2 11 1 13 1 1 1 2 5 6
19 18,432 Daniel McGrath 4 3 3 4 1 1 4 2 4 4
20 26,880 The Revolutionist 2 2 2 5 1 2 1 WR 4 WR
21 29,952 delijoe79 4 2 1 WR 3 1 1 2 4 6
22 30,240 Gervase Fen WR 3 2 5 1 1 2 1 7 6
23 33,264 Tomwatt 6 11 2 3 1 1 1 3 7 4
24 37,800 HolmesBaker 6 1 2 6 1 7 1 3 5 5
25 40,320 Regenerator WR 2 5 6 1 1 4 WR 1 2
26 45,360 Jonathan Morris 2 6 1 6 1 7 1 3 5 6
27 56,160 David Ainsworth 6 3 1 13 2 1 6 2 2 5
= 56,160 Fortmap 4 3 1 WR 3 1 6 1 5 2
29 61,776 Old Type 40 6 11 2 13 1 1 2 3 1 6
30 105,840 DoctorBrownCoat 1 3 2 5 WR 1 WR 1 7 6
31 175,500 Starfighter Pilot 5 6 5 13 1 1 1 3 6 5
32 288,288 Gordon Ridout 4 11 2 13 2 7 1 3 1 6
33 362,880 magicbaboon 2 2 1 6 1 WR 6 3 5 WR
34 Matthew Warren 6 11 2 13 3 7 1 3 6 1
35 barnaby salton WR 6 2 13 1 7 2 1 5 6
36 Dave Woodley 6 11 5 5 1 1 2 WR 7 6
37 oryx_beisa 5 3 WR WR 3 1 4 1 6 6
38 Binro_The_Heretic 6 11 5 13 2 2 6 2 6 2
39 Lord of Thyme 4 1 3 WR 2 WR 6 2 5 WR
40 Aquatics64 6 WR 2 6 1 WR WR 2 7 5
41 Keaton Slansky WR 2 1 WR WR WR 2 1 WR WR
42 trstr 6 11 WR WR WR 7 1 2 6 6
Here is the complete list of answers given. Each list shows correct answers
in the order worst to best (most to least popular).
0. Name an actor who was first cast in a single Doctor Who story, but who
was later cast as a regular character. ("Regular" should be taken to mean
appearing in at least two consecutive stories or at least three stories in
the same season.)
6 Colin Baker (Maxil, The Doctor)
6 Ian Marter (Andrews, Harry Sullivan)
5 Freema Ageyman (Adeola, Martha)
4 John Levene (Benton)
4 Nicholas Courtney (Lethbridge-Stewart)
2 Adjoa Andoh (Sister Jatt, Francine)
2 Barry Jackson (Ascaris, Jeff Garvey)
2 Lachele Carl (Trinity Wells)
2 Sarah Sutton (Nyssa)
2 Valentine Dyall (Black Guardian)
1 Bernard Cribbins (Wilf)
1 Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble)
1 Lalla Ward (Astra, Romana)
Wrong
2 Catherine Tate (initially cast in two stories)
1 Graham Cole
1 Karen Gillan (Soothsayer, Amy Pond)
This question was inspired by the observation that the new series likes to
"audition" new companions before giving them the part. Of the three "major"
companions who have followed or will follow Rose Tyler, every one has had a
prior appearance on the show, either the same actor playing a different
character or, in Donna's case, a try-out for the character too. Freema
Ageyman appeared as Adeola in Army of Ghosts before being cast as
Martha Jones and Karen Gillan appeared as one of the soothsayers in The
Fires of Pompeii before being cast as Amy Pond opposites Matt Smith's
eleventh Doctor. My intention was to phrase the question was phrased so as
to allow her, but considering the phrasing of rule 4, I think I failed in
this intent, and so Karen Gillan is a wrong answer.
Speaking of phrasing the question, I had to come up with a definition of
"regular character" that would be watertight, easy to research (I didn't want
entrants having to track down BBC paperwork) and still generous enough to
allow a decent range of answers. With "secondary companions" like Mickey Smith
and Adam Mitchell in mind, I decided that appearing in any two consecutive
stories or appearing three times in one season would be sufficient to
distinguish occasional recurring parts like Professor Travers from regulars,
albethey temporary. However, I neglected to consider the impact of 1960s
"lead-ins" to subsequent stories and this let in Barry Jackson on an absurd
technicality - his part in Mission to the Unknown requires his
appearance in the last seconds of Galaxy 4. Since he also appeared as
a different character in The Romans, he qualifies. This line of
reasoning also discounts Catherine Tate as an answer, since her first
appearance is not a "one-off" - she appears in both Doomsday and The
Runaway Bride before becoming a regular throughout Series 4. Despite Wilf's
confident assertion that this would be a unique answer, he was in fact one of
two people to give Barry Jackson, and this almost certainly cost him first place
this time round.
Wilf also bet me that he would be the only qualifying actor who never played a
single scene with The Doctor. He loses that bet too thanks to Lachele Carl, who
first appeared in Aliens of London and who secures her title as a
"regular" under this definition thanks to appearances in three different Series
4 stories. Also of note is Sarah Sutton, who appears in an unbroken run of
stories from The Keeper of Traken to Terminus, but the question
says nothing about a gap between first story and subsequent appearances, only
that the actor in question must have been cast as a one-off. This is indeed the
case where the character of Nyssa is concerned - she was only ever intended to
appear in Traken and Logopolis had to be rewritten in order to
incorporate her. Lalla Ward is in a similar situation.
Graham Cole was submitted by an entrant who misread the question and believed
that his multiple (uncredited) appearances in Seasons 18/19 would be
sufficient. They are not. On the subject of uncredited appearances, whether or
not you count John Levene's uncredited appearances prior to
The Invasion, he clearly qualifies in the part of Benton alone.
Obviously Colin Baker, Ian Marter and Freema Agyeman do well here, and
companion families were also a good source of answers. I'm not aware of any
correct answers that weren't given, but it's possible there are some other
actors who qualify under the Barry Jackson technicality.
1. Name a fictional institution or device which is generally known by its
initials.
11 TOMTIT (Time Monster)
6 IMC (Colony in Space)
3 BIDS (Stones of Blood)
3 TARDIS
3 UNIT
2 CET (Nightmare of Eden)
2 CIA (Deadly Assassin)
2 ISC (Tenth Planet)
2 LINDA (Love & Monsters)
2 TSS (Kinda)
1 BOSS (The Green Death)
1 HADS (The Krotons)
1 OMDSS (Ark in Space)
1 SIDRAT (The War Games)
1 WOTAN (War Machines)
Wrong
1 DARDIS (not given onscreen, possibly not initials)
Doctor Who loves a good set of initials, and there were many to choose from
here, which makes the massive collision on TOMTIT all the more surprising.
I had expected TARDIS and UNIT to do well, but the huge popularity of Professor
Thascalos' Kronos-summoning gadget caught me completely off-guard. Maybe it's
the sheer clunkiness of the phrase it stands for (Transmission of Matter through
Interstitial Time) which sticks in the mind, although this logorrhoea is nothing
next to Tethered Aerial Release System Developed In Style - one of the most
contrived abbreviations I have ever heard. Some entrants specified this variant,
but under the new rule 4.6 all variations of "TARDIS" have been marked as
equivalent. This is perhaps fortunate for those entrants, as I nearly considered
that an ordinary hot air balloon wasn't nearly fictional enough to qualify.
"LINDA" I wasn't sure whether or not to count as an "institution" and "HADS" I
was uncertain qualified as a "device" but eventually I decided that both
specifications were broad enough to cover these and that to exclude either would
be unreasonably capricious. Only "DARDIS" and "SIDRAT" I struggled with. Both
are used in the scripts, but DARDIS is never given onscreen, and even if it
were, it is far from clear what the letters might stand for - "Daleks And
Relative Dimensions In Space"? "SIDRAT" is used in once or twice in dialogue,
and were we allowed to consult the novelisation, Mr Malcolm Hulke would tell us
that they stand for Space and Inter-Dimensional Robot All-Purpose Transporter,
but the novelisation is clearly out-of-bounds so we have to determine whether
or not SIDRAT is an abbreviation based on the onscreen evidence alone. After
some mulling, I've concluded that a viewer who knew what a TARDIS was would
get the joke and conclude that SIDRAT was also a set of initials, even if we
didn't learn what those letters stood for.
2. Name a character for whom "The [BLANK]" (where exactly one word fills the
blank) is used as their name.
5 The Shadow (Armageddon Factor)
3 The Borad (Timelash)
2 The Collector (Sunmakers)
2 The Host (Tooth and Claw)
2 The Monitor (Logopolis)
2 The Portreeve (Castrovalva)
2 The Seeker (Ribos Operation)
2 The Toymaker (Celestial)
2 The Valeyard
1 The Animus (The Web Planet)
1 The Brigadier
1 The Destroyer (Battlefield)
1 The Editor (The Long Game)
1 The Ergon (Arc of Infinity)
1 The Examiner (Power of the Daleks)
1 The Gravis (Frontios)
1 The Guardian (Colony in Space)
1 The Immortal (Mysterious Planet)
1 The Inquisitor
1 The Karkus (The Mind Robber)
1 The Minister (The War Machines)
1 The Oracle (Underworld)
1 The President (Deadly Assassin)
1 The Rani
1 The Unicorn (and the Wasp)
1 The Watcher (Logopolis)
1 The Wire (Idiot's Lantern)
Wrong
1 The Director
1 The Mara (not a character)
Doctor Who is plagued by characters whose name follows this pattern, and I have
had to decide in the past whether "The [BLANK]" is a character's name or simply
a convenient way of referring to them. For this question, anyone who was known
exclusively as a title, or who was credited in this way, was acceptable. Thus
"The Minister" (The War Machines) and "The Brigadier" (thanks only to
Mawdryn Undead) both sneak in. I would not have accepted, for example,
"The General" referring to General Scobie in Spearhead from Space, no matter
how often he is thus referred to. I had a momentary qualm about allowing The
Portreeve - there is no such person after all - but felt that ultimately I had
no basis for claiming that The Master was any better of a name, so I allowed
it. Similarly I questioned whether Michael Gough's character should properly be
called "The Celestial Toymaker", but he is credited just as "Toymaker" so in he
goes. It also isn't clear whether or not "The Ergon" identifies Omega's giant
rubber chicken as a member of the Ergon race or whether it is its name, but
since Malcolm Harvey is credited as playing "The Ergon", I'll give this entrant
the benefit of the doubt.
The entrant who submitted "The Director" was thinking of "The Editor" in The
Long Game and I could find no other character called Director who met the
previous conditions. "The Mara" I really don't think qualifies as a character.
No actor plays the part, it has no lines, and is represented on screen only by
the way in which it changes those whom it influences (and by a big pink
inflatable snake, obviously). This is consistent with previous rulings on, for
example, Erato (who even has a proper name).
Nobody went for The Doctor or The Master, which was a little surprising. Other
right answers not given include The Inquisitor, The Keeper, The Gatherer, The
Monk and no doubt many others.
3. Name a story which was shot entirely on location (special effects sequences
can be ignored for the purposes of this question).
13 The Sontaran Experiment
6 The Curse of Fenric
5 Survival
4 Spearhead from Space
3 Silver Nemesis
3 The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
Wrong
2 Delta and the Bannermen
1 City of Death
1 Father's Day
1 Fires of Pompeii
1 The Android Invasion
1 The Ark in Space
1 The Next Doctor
This is an out-psych-the-opposition rather than dig-up-an-obscure-fact
question, and I believe there are only six right answers. Despite this,
question 1 almost ties it for the worst right answer score.
In the 1960s, Doctor Who was filmed with electronic cameras in a television
studio at Lime Grove or Television Centre. As time wore on, more and more
location filming, on 16mm film, was allowed for. Studio work was still very
much the norm, until the first colour story, Spearhead from Space, which also
introduced Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. Due to industrial action, outgoing
producer Derrick Sherwin had no option but to mount the whole production on
location and on film. It remains to this day the only Doctor Who serial to have
been shot entirely on film. Following this, the programme reverted to the usual
pattern of location filming followed by studio taping. A few years later, it
was decided to use the, then fairly new, OB video cameras to tape the whole of
The Sontaran Experiment, backing it up with the all-studio Ark in Space. Thus
the 60s provide no correct answers, and the 70s just two, with Sontex a massive
favourite over Spearhead.
All other correct answers come from the McCoy era, all three seasons of which
were produced in three recording blocks - one for each of two four-part
stories, recorded in the then usual way, with location footage captured on OB
video cameras following which the remaining scenes would be shot in the studio
at Television Centre - and the last split in two to form one three-part
adventure shot entirely on location and a second shot entirely in the studio.
However, things aren't quite that simple. For Delta and the Bannermen, Season
24's "all location" story, a short scene inside the TARDIS was shot in the
studio as part of the recording for Dragonfire, which discounts that story as
a right answer.
Season 25 was again hit by problems; when the cast and crew returned from
location filming in Warmwell Quarry for The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, they
were informed that an asbestos scare at Television Centre meant there was no
studio available to them. Turned down by BBC Bristol, and required to complete
filming on BBC premises or abandon the story, John Nathan-Turner and designer
David Laskey were eventually able to make use of a BBC car park in Ealing.
This time, the story's brief TARDIS scene seems to have been completed as part
of this shoot, and so Greatest Show counts; only three entrants picked it
though. This was followed in the production sequence by Silver Nemesis which
was intended to be and was shot on location, with no TARDIS scenes slipping
through the net (Kevin Clarke's script gives Ace a ghetto blaster with,
essentially, a TARDIS scanner built into it, as a substitute). Again, only
three people picked poor, unloved Silver Nemesis.
And so, on to Season 26, which gives us not only Survival, shot on location
in Perivale and back at Warmwell, but also Curse of Fenric, which switched
from the normal studio/location mix fairly late in the day when director
Nick Mallet convinced John Nathan-Turner that the work could be completed
in less time and would look better.
No later stories qualify - The TV Movie was shot on location in Vancouver
and a local studio there, and all 21st century Who has included scenes shot in
the BBC Wales studios, or more recently in the purpose-built Upper Boat
complex. In Father's Day this includes scenes in the TARDIS and the Tylers'
flat, and in The Next Doctor, Doctor Who Confidential explained at length that
the Cyberworkhouse was a redress of the Torchwood Hub, a standing set at Upper
Boat. The uniform look of the scenes, due to all footage being captured on
video tape (these days, hi-def) and then graded and filmised, means that it is
harder to tell today what is shot on location and what is shot in the studio,
compared to the days of 16mm filming on location and glossy, flatly-lit studio
videotaping.
Some entrants seemed to think that any overseas filming qualified, but although
location filming for City of Death and The Fires of Pompeii was completed
outside the UK, both stories include studio footage captured back in the UK,
at Television Centre and Upper Boat respectively. The entrant who submitted
The Ark in Space did not, I was relieved to learn, imagine that it had been
literally recorded in orbit, but instead was thinking of Sontex and managed
to put the wrong story down. I imagine the same is true of the entrant who
punted The Android Invasion.
4. Give an English word, found in dictionary.com, which has another Doctor
Who specific meaning not given. For example, if "Haemovore" were an English
word meaning "blood-eater", then this would be a correct answer since it has
another, more specific, meaning in a Doctor Who context, and this meaning
is not given at dictionary.com.
3 Axon (part of a neuron)
3 Mara (Patagonian hare)
3 Matrix (template, array of numbers, many other meanings)
2 Draconian (severe)
2 Malus (legal term)
2 Quark (subatomic particle)
2 Tomtit (bird)
1 Abydos (name of an ancient city)
1 Beaus (boyfriends)
1 Biodata (biography)
1 Celation (conealment of pregnancy)
1 Delta (Greek letter)
1 Gonds (aboriginals)
1 Isomorphic (having same form but different ancestry)
1 Mandragora (mandrake root)
1 Mandrel (spindle)
1 Mentor (teacher)
1 Midnight (12:00am)
1 Monoid (algebraic system)
1 Nemesis (Goddess of retribution)
1 Rani (queen)
1 Rill (rivulet or channel)
1 Silurian (geologic period)
1 Slab (thick slice)
1 Solonian (resident of Ohio town)
1 Telos (end of a goal-directed process)
1 Tractator (one who writes tracts!!)
1 Unit (single thing)
1 Zygon (The short crossbar connecting the branches of a zygal fissure)
Wrong
1 Impossible
1 Polly (female first name)
1 Rose (female first name)
Lots of choices here too, and "tomtit" shows up as a popular answer again. I
have given a brief definition for each answer, and these are not intended to
be in any way exhaustive. Further explanations if you need them - Abydos is a
planet mentioned in The Leisure Hive, the Doctor's use of "isomorphic" to mean
"only I can use it" is totally at odds with anything in dictionary.com and The
Masters of Celation and Beaus are two of those wretched alien delegates in
Mission to the Unknown.
"Silurian" was a close-run thing. The reason that the lizard-creatures who
menace the Doctor and Liz on Wenley Moor are called "Silurians" is because
they supposedly hail from that period in Earth's history, except that this
is too early by about 200 million years. The Doctor attempts to correct the
error in The Sea Devils, offering "Eocenes" as a better description, which is
about 20 million years out in the other direction. Either way, dictionary.com
does not offer a definition of "Silurian" which remotely resembles anything
played by Pat Gorman or voiced by Peter Halliday, so this one is okay.
Pretty obviously wrong is "impossible" despite the entrant's claim that "It's
what the Doctor does." "Rose" and "Polly" were both very marginal calls and
for the same reason. Clearly, the word "Rose" and the word "Polly" have very
particular associations for Doctor Who fans, but one of the definitions given
at dictionary.com for each of these is "a female given name" and this is
exactly the sense in which each is used in the series. That each also has a
more specific referent I don't think is relevant in a question about the
definitions of words. You might as well argue that "scarf" is correct on these
grounds, since dictionary.com does not describe Tom Baker's scarf.
That leaves "Nemesis". It seems clear from the dialogue that the comet and the
statue are named after the Goddess of Retribution and so this would appear to
be a wrong answer, but once activated the statue is referred to as "Nemesis"
more than once. This makes it a proper noun identifying something other than
an ancient Greek goddess (unlike "Rose" and "Polly" which only ever identify
women) and so it scrapes past, leaving validium skid marks on its way in.
"Adipose", one of the answers I had in mind when I set the question, was not
given by anyone. I am also amused to imagine what the owners of dictionary.com
will think when, on checking their logs, they find a sudden flurry of people
searching for "Gastropod", "Artron", "Telebiogenesis" and other arcana.
5. Give an alias or false name that a character has used
7 James McCrimmon (The Doctor)
2 Dodo Dupont (The Gunfighters)
2 Mr Magister (The Master)
2 Professor Thascalos (The Master)
2 Spartacus (The Doctor)
2 Victor (Vicki)
1 Cho-Je (K'Ampo Rimpoche)
1 D84
1 Dask (Taren Capel)
1 Doctor von Wer (The Doctor)
1 Dr Philip Bowman (The Doctor)
1 Dr Caligari (The Doctor)
1 Grenville (Hallett)
1 Harold Saxon (The Master)
1 Jack Harkness (real name unknown)
1 James Stirling (Lemaitre)
1 John Smith (The Doctor)
1 Joseph Green (Jocrassa Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen)
1 Kalid (The Master)
1 Lavinia Smith (Sarah Jane)
1 Miss Foster (Matron Cofelia)
1 Senhora Camara (Cessair of Diplos)
1 Sir Giles Estram (The Master)
1 The Adjudicator (The Master)
1 The Great Healer (Davros)
1 Victor Kennedy (Love & Monsters)
1 Vivien Fay (Cessair of Diplos)
Wrong
1 ? (not an alias)
1 Colonel Majester
1 Dr. James McClellan
1 Sally Shipton (not used)
Again, lots and lots of choice here, but we all love the Doctor passing himself
off as his old kilted companion in Tooth and Claw so this gets lots of votes.
Elsewhere, The Master makes much of the running and with so much scope, I had
to be picky. I might have overlooked the misspelling of "Magister" but I had
to mark "Colonel Majester" wrong, especially as the Master claims to be
"Colonel Masters" in another story altogether. Equally I didn't think "James
McClellan" was close enough to be counted as a mere typo, sorry.
The Doctor also contributes his fair share (indeed, longtime campaigners may
remember some from an earlier contest). As well as the afore-mentioned
McCrimmon, I was also happy to accept Dr Caligari from The Gunfighters,
Spartacus from Fires of Pompeii, John Smith from who knows how many stories
and, very subtly, Dr Philip Bowman from the TV Movie - this is the name he
adopts when he and Grace collect passes at the San Francisco Institute of
Technological Advancement and Research.
Two possibly controversial wrong answers are "?" and "Sally Shipton". The
entrant who tried "?" provided (unprompted) a lengthy justification during
which I learned that this was how the lead singer of an obscure American rock
band styled himself. However, that someone else used this punctuation mark as
an alias does not imply that the Doctor is using it as such. It seems to me
that he is using it much as one might sign a Valentine's card, to mean "guess
who?". Or perhaps the entrant believes that the seventh Doctor's pullover is
just a very, very insistent name badge?
"Sally Shipton" I think is easier to deal with. It isn't Sally Sparrow's name,
but she never claims it is. She simply pronounces those words, and then
immediately corrects herself, whereas the question asks you to provide a name
which someone uses as an alias. That implies at least some attempt to deceive
and there is none here.
A couple of other points to note. Cessair of Diplos styles herself as Vivien
Fay during much of The Stones of Blood but we also learn that she has used
other names. The question does not require that we witness the person in
question use the false name in question, and the episode does establish that
C of D also used the name Senhora Camara so this is a right answer. The other
noteworthy answer was D84. This robot is clearly of SV class (or higher?), so
D84 is a false designation, and I have no problem taking this as answer, even
though I don't think we ever find out what its "real" name was.
6. Name an actor who played the same non-Doctor Who part in movies or on TV
both before and after their appearance in an episode of Doctor Who.
6 John Cleese (Basil Fawlty, Fawlty Towers)
4 Peter Davison (Tristan Farnon, All Creatures)
2 Beryl Reid (Connie Sachs, Smiley)
2 Catherine Tate (Nan)
2 Hugh Quarshie (Ric Griffin, Casualty)
1 Alex Kingston (Dr Elizabeth Corday, ER)
1 Anthony Head (Prime Minister, Little Britain)
1 Brian Grellis (Bowker, Z Cars)
1 Burt Kwouk (Cato, Pink Panther films)
1 Clifford Rose (Kessler, Secret Army)
1 Frazer Hines (Joe Sugden, Emmerdale)
1 Jack Watling (Don Henderson, The Power Game)
1 Jon Pertwee (Worzel Gummidge)
1 Kathryn Drysdale (Louise, Two Pints)
1 Lynda Barron (Nurse Gladys, Open All Hours)
1 Lynda Bellingham (Oxo mum)
1 Marc Warren (Danny, Hustle)
1 Nerys Hughes (Sandra, Liver Birds)
1 Nigel Stock (Sir Mark Spencer, Yes Minister)
1 Norman Pace (Ron, Hale & Pace)
1 Peter Bathurst (Dr Upton, Doctor in the House/At Large)
1 Rhodri Meilir (Alfie Butts, My Family)
1 Roger Lloyd Pack (Owen Newitt, Vicar of Dibley)
1 Ronald Allen (David Hunter, Crossroads)
1 Russell Tovey (Budgie, Gavin & Stacey)
1 Terrance Alexander (Charlie Hungerford, Bergerac)
1 Tom Goodman-Hill (PC, Ideal)
1 Valentine Dyall (Dr Pascal Keldermans, Secret Army)
1 Zoe Wanamaker (Susan Harper, My Family)
Wrong
1 Barbara Windsor (Peggy Mitchell, EastEnders)
1 Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones, Torchwood)
Time to get over to IMDB and start hunting. Actors I had in mind when I set the
question included Peter Davison, who played Tristan before and after playing
the Doctor, John Cleese who appeared in Fawlty Towers before and after his
guest appearance in City of Death and Zoe Wanamaker who has appeared in My
Family for what seems like seventy years, but which is apparently only since
2000. All of these were given at least once. Other right answers not given
include Andre Maranne whose various Pink Panther films fall either side of his
appearance in The Moonbase, Bernard Holley who qualifies for both of his
Doctor Who roles and - cheekily - Michael Sheard who has played Hitler half a
dozen times for different productions as well as making numerous appearances
in Who.
Not making the grade is Barbara Windsor, who appears as Peggy Mitchell in Army
of Ghosts. This means she is playing the same part on both Doctor Who and
EastEnders, and so this cannot count as a non-Doctor Who role, as required by
the question. More obviously wrong, but for the same reason is Gareth
David-Lloyd, whose role as Ianto Jones is very clearly not a non-Doctor Who
role, since it's the role he plays in the Doctor Who episode The Stolen Earth.
I wasn't expecting to see sketch comedians cited here, but several were
suggested. Indeed, the first person to suggest John Cleese asserted that he
played "Mr Teabag" in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus and the same
role in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl many years later. In fact the
evidence is scanty that the Minister for Silly Walks is called Mr Teabag
(check his reaction when Carol Cleveland calls him that), but it's nevertheless
reasonably clear that this is the same character. None of which really matters
since I'm sure better examples could have been found and in any case, he
clearly qualifies as Basil Fawlty. In the same category, Norman Pace performed
in Hale and Pace sketch shows before and after his appearance in Survival and
played any number of returning characters, and the same is true of Catherine
Tate, thanks largely to a recent appearance as Nan on Comic Relief.
I also didn't imagine that advertisements would be of any help, but - lo! -
there's Lynda Bellingham as the redoubtable Oxo mum over a period of nearly 20
years, and nothing in the wording of the question rules her out. (She doesn't
qualify for her portrayal of Helen in All Creatures Great and Small, as she
didn't take over the role until 1988.)
7. Name a story which features at least one recurring villain or race of
monsters and at least one one-off villain or race of monsters. For the purposes
of this question, villains or monsters who appear only very briefly, or only in
flashbacks in a subsequent story or stories can still be counted as having made
a "one off" appearance.
3 The Chase (Mechanoids)
3 The Claws of Axos (Axons)
3 The Invasion of Time (Vardans)
3 The Two Doctors (Chessene)
2 Daleks Master Plan (Mavic Chen)
2 Mawdryn Undead (Mawdryn)
2 Mindwarp (Kiv)
2 Mission to the Unknown (Varga Plants)
2 The Invasion (Tobias Vaughan)
2 The Time Warrior (Irongron)
2 Time and the Rani (Tetraps)
2 Warriors of the Deep (Myrka)
1 Frontier in Space (Draconians)
1 Monster of Peladon (Eckersley)
1 Rise of the Cybermen (Lumic)
1 Runaway Bride (Racnoss, Robot Santas)
1 Smith and Jones (Plasmavore, Judoon)
1 Survival (Cheetah People)
1 The Daemons (Azal)
1 The Next Doctor (Cybershade)
1 The Space Museum (Moroks, Daleks)
1 The Time Monster (Kronos)
1 Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords (Toclafane)
Wrong
1 Attack of the Cybermen
1 Destiny of the Daleks
1 Galaxy 4
Quite a lot of scope here and you were a bit unlucky to score a 3. I have
indicated the one-off villain in brackets, except in a few cases where I have
given both for clarity. One example is The Space Museum which features a live
Dalek at the end, as a lead-in to The Chase. I nearly marked this wrong on the
basis that if a very brief reprise does not rule a monster out as a "one-off"
then a similarly brief appearance could not count a monster in as a making a
return appearance. As reasonable as this sounds, however, I didn't actually
specify it in the question, and so I cannot rely on it here.
No, the headache I've given myself here is deciding just who should count as a
"villain" or "race of monsters". I've no problem counting any of the following
as one-off villains: Mavic Chen, Mawdryn, Tobias Vaughan, Chessene, Kiv,
Moroks, Eckersley, Florence the Plasmavore, Lumic, Irongron and - after some
pondering - the Draconians. Likewise, the following all seem to fit the
template of "monster" admirably, whether or not they are the main antagonists:
Vardans, Varga Plants, Mechanoids, Axons, Tetraps, Myrka, Cybershades, Kronos,
Toclafane, Racnoss and - after some pondering - the Cheetah People.
That leaves three answers I've marked wrong. Galaxy 4 is obviously wrong, and
when I queried it, the entrant confessed to having misread the question.
Unlovely Attack of the Cybermen features return visits from the Cybermen and
Lytton (the latter implausibly revealed as good-guy in episode two). Various
smalltime crooks are loafing around - Griffiths, Payne and Russell (the last
implausibly revealed as a good-guy in episode one) but none really count as
villains. Everyone else is working against the Cybermen, either for their own
ends (Stratten and Bates) or for the greater good (the Cryons). But the Cryons
are poor candidates for monsterhood anyway, being too differentiated, too
altruistic and too articulate to really fit that description. It's a similar
story with Destiny of the Daleks: the Daleks and Davros are the main villains
and everyone else is working against them. The Movellans may have some pretty
poor manners towards Romana and a fairly desperate solution to the Dalek
problem, but it takes more than beads in your hair to make you a monster and
more than pointing a gun in the wrong direction to make you a villain.
Right answers not given include The Parting of the Ways, Time-Flight, The Three
Doctors and no doubt many others.
8. Name somebody who has had a credit on a television episode of Doctor Who and
who has also written an original official Doctor Who novel.
7 Chris Boucher
6 Mark Gatiss
5 Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan's War)
5 Mike Tucker
4 Marc Platt
3 Terrance Dicks
2 Ben Aaronovitch
1 Andrew Cartmel
1 Barry Letts (Island of Death)
1 David Banks
1 Gareth Roberts
1 Gary Russell
1 Graham Williams (The Nightmare Fair)
1 Matt Jones (Bad Therapy)
1 Paul Cornell
1 Philip Martin (Mission to Magnus)
Wrong
1 I can't
Apologies for the adjustment to the wording of this question. Weirdly, I have
the correct version in my notes, but somehow the word "original" fell out on
its way to Gallifrey Base. I blame Steve Hill. The reason for including this
word is, I hope, obvious. There are an awful lot of people who novelised their
own story for Target/Virgin but who wrote no other novels featuring the Doctor,
and this would have made the question far too easy. Two entrants weirdly both
opting for John Lucarotti alerted me to the error. Both took advantage of my
offer to change their answer. A later entrant who went for William Emms was
also offered the chance to change their answer and took it.
Among the Target writers, Terrance Dicks obviously qualifies having written any
number of novels for The New Adventures and the various ranges which succeeded
it. Ian Marter is allowed on the basis of Harry Sullivan's War, which may not
actually feature the Doctor, but does have a dirty great neon Doctor Who logo
on the cover, which surely qualifies it. Barry Letts wrote an original for the
BBC Books range - The Island of Death - and Philip Martin and Graham Williams
novelised their unmade scripts Mission to Magnus and The Nightmare Fair
respectively. Although based on scripts written for the programme, this was the
first time that any version of each story made it to any member of the public,
which makes it original enough for me. I believe that all the other right
answers are uncontroversial with Mark Gatiss, Chris Boucher, Mike Tucker and
Marc Platt all scoring highly.
As far as I can see, the only right answer not given was a Mr Russell T Davies
who wrote Damaged Goods for the Virgin New Adventures long before the series
returned to BBC1. You may have heard of him, as I gather he's done rather well
for himself lately.
The only person to get this wrong did so by failing to provide an answer at
all, only a plaintive "I can't".
9. Name a story produced by John Nathan-Turner in which no character (aside
from the Doctor and his companions), robot, alien planet, or alien race from
an earlier story is seen.
6 Black Orchid
6 Four to Doomsday
5 The Visitation
4 The Leisure Hive
2 Delta and the Bannermen
2 Frontios
2 Meglos
2 Paradise Towers
2 The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
2 Warriors Gate
1 Kinda
1 The Awakening
1 Vengeance on Varos
Wrong
2 Full Circle (Gallifrey)
2 Twin Dilemma (Azmael is a Time Lord)
1 Also cannot
1 City of Death (produced by Graham Williiams)
And finally, I count 18 out of 50 JNT-produced stories which satisfy these
constraints. If I had specified no mention of any of these things, the number
might have been much lower, maybe even zero.
As it was, five went unnamed, these being State of Decay (despite all the talk
of Time Lords, none are seen onscreen save the Doctor and Romana), Time Lash
(similarly, the Doctor's previous visit is an unseen adventure and so doesn't
count), The Happiness Patrol, Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric.
Popular choices were Black Orchid - a safe bet since it famously features no
science-fiction elements at all, let alone recurring ones, apart from the
TARDIS and the regular cast - and Four to Doomsday.
Two entrants forgot that Azmael/Edgeworth in Twin Dilemma is a Time Lord, two
more neglected the shot of Gallifrey on the TARDIS scanner in Full Circle and
one doesn't know the difference between a Production Unit Manager and a
Producer.
This concludes DWRE15. If you have quibbles, get them in ASAP as I am off on my
hols tomorrow morning and may not have access to the Internet. I'll try and run
DWRE16 around the time of the broadcast of The Waters of Mars if I can think of
enough good questions.
Two final quick notes. Longtime competitors may recall that past DWRE contests
are obsessively recorded by me at www.tomsalinsky.co.uk/dwre. Here I record the
contest as it was originally set, the full text of the original results posting
and a corrected scoresheet with any explanations if necessary. What I don't
record is the, sometimes pages and pages, of post-contest debate. These are
instead linked to from the home page. Or were. With the demise of The Doctor
Who Forum, both these pages and the previously-archived Outpost Gallifrey
forum pages seem to have vanished off the face of the Internet. Does anyone
know if our merry bickering and wrangling has been saved for posterity
anywhere, or is it gone for good along with Power of the Daleks?
And lastly, Mark Brader's latest (general knowledge) Rare Entries contest is
now up on rec.puzzles and he is again threatening to discontinue them entirely
if few people enter. Mark is the king of rare entries contests and the reason
they exist here on Gallifrey Base. Why not give it a go?
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.puzzles/browse_thread/thread/230105249cc297bd/f90b532b174b9ba8
Cheers
Tom